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I want a set of files copied daily from a remote server to local machine at 5 am in the morning. The following crontab entry does not work:

   0 5 * * * scp user1@192.168.5.54:/tmp/bkp*tar.gz /home/user1/dir1

This is on Ubuntu 18.04 (if it matters which I don't think it should). The command works when executed manually by the same user in whose crontab this entry is made.

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    When executed manually, how is the password being entered? – tater Sep 7 '20 at 5:59
  • When you say 'it works manually', does that mean that your public/private key set-up works? For user1? In which crontab is this line; is that the same user as the manual execution? – Ljm Dullaart Sep 7 '20 at 6:28
  • @LjmDullaart I think you have got me thinking about the problem. The user is the same, manually or in crontab. Does it have to do with not getting the public/private key set-up when run through crontab? Any way around it? – asinix Sep 7 '20 at 16:00
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Set-up public/private key authentication. scp needs some form of authentication on the server where you copy the files from. If you want to set-up cronjobs for scp, this should be passwordless keys. You are not at the terminal to type the password for your cronjob.

There is a utility called sshpass that allows you to script the password, without setting-up pub/priv keys. It is not always available, and is perhaps a lesser solution.

If you worry about security (or if this is not a home-solution), create a separate user for the file transfer and make sure that that user has only authorizations that are required for the copying.

Note that ssh-agent will not help you in this case.

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  • I am using public/private key authentication. I understand that cron runs differently than when I am manually scp-ing. – asinix Sep 9 '20 at 18:11
  • If you want to set-up cronjobs for scp, this should be passwordless keys. – Ljm Dullaart Sep 9 '20 at 19:45
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If you're using keys, the ssh-agent helper is not run because cron is not going through the standard login process.

You'll need to start ssh-agent manually. For more information see for example https://www.ssh.com/ssh/agent

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  • Will look into issues related to ssh-agent... – asinix Sep 9 '20 at 18:11

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